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xPack QEMU RISC-V v9.2.4-1 released

· 7 min read
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

Version 9.2.4-1.1 is a new release; it follows the upstream QEMU release.

The xPack QEMU RISC-V is a standalone cross-platform binary distribution of QEMU.

There are separate binaries for Windows (x64), macOS (x64 and arm64) and GNU/Linux (x64 and arm64).

Raspberry Pi

The main targets for the GNU/Linux Arm binaries are the Raspberry Pi class devices (aarch64 only; armv6 and armv7l are no longer supported).

Download​

The binary files are available from GitHub Releases.

Prerequisites​

  • x64 Windows: Windows 7 with the Universal C Runtime (UCRT), Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11
  • x64 macOS: 11.0 or later
  • arm64 macOS: 11.0 or later
  • x64 GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.28 or higher (like Ubuntu 20 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • arm64 GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.28 or higher (like Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu 20 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)

Install​

The easiest way to install this specific version, is by using xpm:

xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/qemu-riscv@9.2.4-1.1 -verbose

Comprehensive instructions for installing xPack QEMU RISC-V on different platforms can be found in the Install Guide.

Compliance​

The xPack QEMU RISC-V currently is based on the official QEMU, with no major changes.

The current version is based on:

  • QEMU version 9.2.4, from 28 May 2025.

Changes​

Compared to the master qemu-system-riscv*, there are no major changes.

The supported boards and CPUs are:

$ .../xpack-qemu-riscv-9.2.4-1/bin/qemu-system-riscv32 -machine help
Supported machines are:
none                 empty machine
opentitan            RISC-V Board compatible with OpenTitan
sifive_e             RISC-V Board compatible with SiFive E SDK
sifive_u             RISC-V Board compatible with SiFive U SDK
spike                RISC-V Spike board (default)
virt                 RISC-V VirtIO board
$ .../xpack-qemu-riscv-9.2.4-1/bin/qemu-system-riscv32 -cpu help
Available CPUs:
  lowrisc-ibex
  max
  rv32
  rv32e
  rv32i
  sifive-e31
  sifive-e34
  sifive-u34

$ .../xpack-qemu-riscv-9.2.4-1/bin/qemu-system-riscv64 -machine help
Supported machines are:
microchip-icicle-kit Microchip PolarFire SoC Icicle Kit
none                 empty machine
shakti_c             RISC-V Board compatible with Shakti SDK
sifive_e             RISC-V Board compatible with SiFive E SDK
sifive_u             RISC-V Board compatible with SiFive U SDK
spike                RISC-V Spike board (default)
virt                 RISC-V VirtIO board
$ .../xpack-qemu-riscv-9.2.4-1/bin/qemu-system-riscv64 -cpu help
Available CPUs:
  lowrisc-ibex
  max
  max32
  rv32
  rv32e
  rv32i
  rv64
  rv64e
  rv64i
  rva22s64
  rva22u64
  shakti-c
  sifive-e31
  sifive-e34
  sifive-e51
  sifive-u34
  sifive-u54
  thead-c906
  veyron-v1
  x-rv128

Bug fixes​

  • none

Enhancements​

  • none

Known problems​

  • none

Documentation​

The original documentation is available on-line:

Build​

The binaries for all supported platforms (Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux) were built using the xPack Build Box (XBB), a set of build environments based on slightly older distributions, that should be compatible with most recent systems.

For the prerequisites and more details on the build procedure, please see the Maintainer Info page.

CI tests​

Before publishing, a set of simple tests were performed on an exhaustive set of platforms. The results are available from:

Tests​

TBD

Checksums​

The SHA-256 hashes for the files are:

afe4910a2ccf023fee1ce01fb3cf497563fd5e92d786b7fff08cb139da1ac281
xpack-qemu-riscv-9.2.4-1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

138554dd3c18d0663deec33a548a3ea73387d3b46382049f03bbc397cbdfba00
xpack-qemu-riscv-9.2.4-1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

b90f76ebff7ecfa50e77c61a750534bdd0eb41deb793c0253fb3f583002a4aed
xpack-qemu-riscv-9.2.4-1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

7cd69277dcf32bb024351ea225d549577713302cc5141444bad12836d5967b8c
xpack-qemu-riscv-9.2.4-1-linux-x64.tar.gz

05df8a50c2109605c7ab382667aa4680d41cb262383053e5bb07d29de616eb1f
xpack-qemu-riscv-9.2.4-1-win32-x64.zip

Folders hierarchy​

After install, the package creates a hierarchy of folders like the following (only the first two depth levels are shown):

C:> tree /f %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\xPacks\@{{packageScope}}\{{packageName}}\9.2.4-1.1\.content
Folder PATH listing
Volume serial number is B02D-925C
├── README.md
├── bin
│   ├── SDL2.dll
│   ├── SDL2_image.dll
│   ├── libffi-8.dll
│   ├── libgio-2.0-0.dll
│   ├── libglib-2.0-0.dll
│   ├── libgmodule-2.0-0.dll
│   ├── libgmp-10.dll
│   ├── libgobject-2.0-0.dll
│   ├── libhogweed-6.dll
│   ├── libintl-8.dll
│   ├── libjpeg-9.dll
│   ├── liblzo2-2.dll
│   ├── libnettle-8.dll
│   ├── libpcre2-8-0.dll
│   ├── libpixman-1-0.dll
│   ├── libssp-0.dll
│   ├── libzstd.dll
│   ├── qemu-system-riscv32.exe
│   ├── qemu-system-riscv32w.exe
│   ├── qemu-system-riscv64.exe
│   └── qemu-system-riscv64w.exe
├── distro-info
│   └── licenses
├── include
│   ├── fdt.h
│   ├── libfdt.h
│   ├── libfdt_env.h
│   └── qemu-plugin.h
├── lib
│   ├── libfdt.a
│   ├── libqemu_plugin_api.a
│   └── pkgconfig
└── share
  ├── QEMU,cgthree.bin
  ├── QEMU,tcx.bin
  ├── applications
  ├── bamboo.dtb
  ├── bios-256k.bin
  ├── bios-microvm.bin
  ├── bios.bin
  ├── canyonlands.dtb
  ├── edk2-aarch64-code.fd
  ├── edk2-arm-code.fd
  ├── edk2-arm-vars.fd
  ├── edk2-i386-code.fd
  ├── edk2-i386-secure-code.fd
  ├── edk2-i386-vars.fd
  ├── edk2-licenses.txt
  ├── edk2-loongarch64-code.fd
  ├── edk2-loongarch64-vars.fd
  ├── edk2-riscv-code.fd
  ├── edk2-riscv-vars.fd
  ├── edk2-x86_64-code.fd
  ├── edk2-x86_64-secure-code.fd
  ├── efi-e1000.rom
  ├── efi-e1000e.rom
  ├── efi-eepro100.rom
  ├── efi-ne2k_pci.rom
  ├── efi-pcnet.rom
  ├── efi-rtl8139.rom
  ├── efi-virtio.rom
  ├── efi-vmxnet3.rom
  ├── firmware
  ├── hppa-firmware.img
  ├── hppa-firmware64.img
  ├── icons
  ├── keymaps
  ├── kvmvapic.bin
  ├── linuxboot.bin
  ├── linuxboot_dma.bin
  ├── multiboot.bin
  ├── multiboot_dma.bin
  ├── npcm7xx_bootrom.bin
  ├── openbios-ppc
  ├── openbios-sparc32
  ├── openbios-sparc64
  ├── opensbi-riscv32-generic-fw_dynamic.bin
  ├── opensbi-riscv64-generic-fw_dynamic.bin
  ├── palcode-clipper
  ├── petalogix-ml605.dtb
  ├── petalogix-s3adsp1800.dtb
  ├── pvh.bin
  ├── pxe-e1000.rom
  ├── pxe-eepro100.rom
  ├── pxe-ne2k_pci.rom
  ├── pxe-pcnet.rom
  ├── pxe-rtl8139.rom
  ├── pxe-virtio.rom
  ├── qboot.rom
  ├── qemu-nsis.bmp
  ├── qemu_vga.ndrv
  ├── s390-ccw.img
  ├── skiboot.lid
  ├── slof.bin
  ├── trace-events-all
  ├── u-boot-sam460-20100605.bin
  ├── u-boot.e500
  ├── vgabios-ati.bin
  ├── vgabios-bochs-display.bin
  ├── vgabios-cirrus.bin
  ├── vgabios-qxl.bin
  ├── vgabios-ramfb.bin
  ├── vgabios-stdvga.bin
  ├── vgabios-virtio.bin
  ├── vgabios-vmware.bin
  ├── vgabios.bin
  ├── vof-nvram.bin
  └── vof.bin

11 directories, 99 files

Deprecation notices​

GNU/Linux minimum requirements​

The minimum requirement is GLIBC 2.28, available starting with Ubuntu 20, Debian 10 and RedHat 8. Support for RedHat 7 was dropped in 2022. Support for Ubuntu 18 was dropped in 2025.

32-bit support​

Support for 32-bit x64 GNU/Linux and x64 Windows was dropped in 2022 and for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux in 2025.

Pre-deprecation notice for x64 macOS​

Apple has discontinued support for the x64 (Intel) architecture. GitHub will no longer support this architecture on macOS after the macOS 15 runner image is retired in November 2027; building and testing x64 macOS binaries will become more difficult, requiring a self-hosted runner, and cannot be guaranteed in the long term.

You should begin migrating your projects to arm64-based (Apple Silicon) binaries to prepare for this possible deprecation.

Analytics​

Credit to Shields IO for the badges and to Somsubhra/github-release-stats for the individual file counters.